Adventures in the 13th Age

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The Refashioning

Cold Open: Storeroom

The priest sings, his low barritone echoed by the assembled masses. They each hold a bucket, and as they sing the dirge they dip brushes inside and draw forth dark, turpintine-like paint to cover the walls, which we now recognize as the Glitterhaegen temple to the One True God, half way through a dim reimagining. The camera pushes quickly through the crowds, down a corridor, and into a store room. The floor shudders and a tile lifts free, and Törk sticks his head out and looks about. “Less green up here for sure; mush easier t’ see.” Nameless‘s voice comes from below, “Great, but is the coast clear?”Törk nods, and climbs up, then offers a hand to aid those below.Purge emerges first, brushes himself off, and picks up an apple from a nearby shelf. He turns it over and sees that it’s rotten. “We must discover what the Salamanders have in store for this place, before it’s too late to do anything about them.”Nat, you were promised a favor by a man who then turned on his friends and followed a dark god, and now you are accompanying that man’s friends into a temple of that dark god. A temple whose gilted doors you ferried from the Wild Wood many Ages ago. But in this Age you hear someone shuffling down the hall toward you. What do you do?

Törk emerges from the storeroom, earlier in the day, sneaks around, steals some bread and mutton, sits invibly in his white hide cloak, counts guys, heads back to the storeroom, “All quiet downstairs, but the ones in the fancy robes can go upstairs where the action is. Ready?” and he lifts the panel to put us back at the cold open.

The Priestess nods, and takes the offered items. “I know. I know. But your work is not yet done.” And she hands him back the sword.

An acolyte on guard duty stops Nameless and Purge from ascending the stairs. “Sister, brother, return to the Great Hall. It is imperitive that the refashioning be done tonight!”

Purge nods, turns to go… and then bashes into the guard, who yells out in pain as he crumbles to the ground, and someone upstairs hollars down offering assistance. The now-unconscious guard is bleeding all over the ground as his aid arrives, and when Nameless fails to convince her of their good intentions Purge knocks her out, too.

Nat, in clothes of a different Age, is leading a band of mercenaries into the Wild Wood, where they attack a small hut and ferry out the doors, still glistening with stain and beautiful.

Cut to Nat overseeing the doors being brought to the construction site that is the Great Hall of this temple, and bartering with an old woman. “I went through a lot of trouble to get these, and I’d appreciate the money we negotiated beforehand.” The old woman reluctantly gives it over, and as Nat walks away she mutters something about retiring to her own island somewhere in the Spray.

Nat snaps her fingers and opens the door. “Let’s go see what happened to them.”

Int, Stairwell

Purge is standing with ill-fitting robes draped over his armor. “These are woman’s robes; I look ridiculous.”

Someone comes around the corner, and Purge raises his shield… but it’s Törk and Nat.

Nameless comes out of a nearby room, and on the floor we see a number of unconscious acolytes. “Oh, look who’s joined us.” She holds up a hat pilfered from one of the unfortunates behind her, “I have permission to go upstairs, now!”

Int, Upstairs

The party trudges up. A guard lies dead on the ground, a dagger in his eye.

Int, A Secret Passage

Nat pushes aside a chunk of wall and it opens. “A little used passage; I doubt they know this way even exists.”

Purge passes a barrel that shudders, then cackles. Out pops a redcap, and soon four of his friends pop out of other tiny hiding spots around the room.

The melee ensues, but the redcaps keep disappearing and popping back out of different impossible hiding spots, or leaping onto people’s backs and jabbing their knives into them. More than once the party finds themselves circled up waiting for another onslought from the passel of redcaps.

[Director’s Note: 13th Age redcaps have a “bad word” that, whenever spoken or thought, allows them to teleport back to a hiding spot. For these redcaps the word was “attack”, and the party spent at least two turns doing nothing because they had no one to hit, seeing as all the redcaps were hiding and ready to pop out again.]

Finally, the last redcap leaps out, misses, and is pounced upon by everyone.

The other end of the secret passage leads into a large, empty room. Nat looks sad, “Nothing’s here.”

Int, Upstairs

Back to the dead guard, Purge performs his last rites, and as he does so his eyes roll back.

Purge sees through The Lich King’s missing eye, as a swirl of vapor and mana resolves into Arroway, who wears a cloak emblazoned with the Obsidian Salamander. “The refashioning is almost complete. Are you almost done with your side of the deal?”

Törk shudders, and in a whisper we hear him speak. “He’s not a man or a force. It’s a thing.”

Suddenly a voice calls from below. “We know you are hiding up there. We know that you have invaded our Refashioning and are despoiling our sacred rites. It is time, now, for you to atone.”

Int, Great Hall

The four enter the great hall, where the statue of Vessel stands amidst blackened walls. Someone has marred his bare chest with a black stain.

Zelmios stands, flanked by a dozen acolytes, all of whom have their shirts open and a scar on their chests. “You who called him friend; why do you desecrate this place?”

Purge steps forward. “Your god is a lie, and I will purge you all.” He brandishes Vessel’s sword, and the battle begins.

Nameless rushes forward to hit Zelmios, but the acolytes block him from view and pile on to her. She gets a few good shots before falling under the weight.

Nat takes the back and protects Törk as he picks off the horde of acolytes.

Purge rushes into the hole Nameless burned and takes on, and then takes out, Zelmios, who in dying is revealed to be a jorogumo swarm prince: a half-man, half-spider who steals men’s hearts and in so doing steals their lives for his cause.

When it’s over, the spider and his woven lie dead, and the temple lies empty.